Person:Robert Semple (49)

Robert Semple

• Semple, William Alexander. Genealogical History of the Family Semple: From 1214 to 1888. (Hartford, Connecticut: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1888), Page 50.^S1

II. 253. Robert Semple, Sheriff-Deputy of Renfrewshire, eldest son of John Semple of Balgreen, sold the lands of Balgreen, formerly called Easter Cloak, Longeraft, Muirshield, and Queenside-Muir, to his kinsman, Robert Semple of Fulwood, July 6, 1697, but continued to reside at Balgreen until his death in 1726. These lands were acquired by Sir John Houston, of that ilk, April 25, 1718, and afterwards passed into the possession of Robert Fulton (by Sir John Houston, son of the first mentioned), merchant in Paisley, December 11, 1729, who sold the lands of Muirshield and Queenside-Muir to William Caldwell of Yardfoot, and were acquired from him by William McDowall of Castle-Semple, 1782. Robert Semple left a widow, Mary Edminstone.^S1

1.   Semple, William Alexander. Genealogical History of the Family Semple: From 1214 to 1888. (Hartford, Connecticut: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1888)
   Page 50.
2.   Hector, William. Selections from the judicial records of Renfrewshire: illustrative of the administration of the laws of the county and manners and conditions of the inhabitants in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1961)
   Second Series, Page 62 to 65.

   SEMPLES OF BALGREEN.
   
   In the history of Renfrewshire, it is stated that near Castlesemple, in the parish of Lochwinnoch, towards the north, lie the lands of Balgreen.
   The Semples of Balgreen were descended from the Semples of Castlesemple, an ancient and, at one time, most influential family in this county, from whom sprung the Semples of FULLWOOD, BLACKBURN, BELLTREES, BRUNTCHELLS, MILLBANK, CATHCART, AND BALLGREEN, this loast family, however, having the bar sinister in their escutcheon.
   In the Belltrees family, we learn there was hereditary poetical talent, several of the lairds in succession having courted the muse; and their poetical effusions, mostly of a humorous character, were well known and highly popular in the county, among them being the epitaph on Habbie Simpson, the piper of Kilbarchan, written by Robert Semple, of Belltrees, about the year 1600. Their writings were collected and published in 1849, under the title of “The Poems of the Sempills of Belltrees, now first collected; with notes and biographical notices of their lives, by James Paterson, author of the history of the county of Ayr.
   Robert Semple, of Balgreen the more immediate subject of these notes, held the office of Sheriff-Depute of Renfrewshire, under the hereditary Sheriff-Principal, The Earl of Eglinton, from 1690, till his death in 1726. The founder of the Balgreen family was John Semple, an illegitimate son of Lord Semple, who came into possession of the lands of Balgreen early in the seventeenth century, by (ie. another John's marriage with Margaret Atkine, heiress of Balgreen). John Semple made considerable accessions to his wife’s property, by purchasing the lands of Longcraft and Muirshiel in 1642, and Queenside Muir in 1655. The estate, thus increased, came through successive generations, from John Semple to Robert Semple, Sheriff-Depute. The Sheriff having unfortunately, by cautionary obligations, got into financial difficulties, he, on 6th July, 1697, disponed his whole estates of Balgreen, formerly called Easter Cloak, Longcraft, Muirshield, and Queenside Muir, to his kinsman, Robert Semple, of Fullwood, then also holding an appointment as Sheriff-Depute of the county.
   Although thus divested of his patrimonial estates, Robert Semple continued to reside at Balgreen till he died, in 1726. He was a zealous public officer, and we have had occasion to take notice, in preceding numbers, of not a few of his decisions in criminal cases. If at all remarkable, his judgments were so for their severity, and, when fines were imposed, for their large amount, often greatly disproportioned to the offences, so far at least as these are revealed by the Record. We find a reason for the imposition of these large fines and penalties in the fact that remuneration for the services of the Sheriff-Deputies and Substitutes, and the Procurator-Fiscal and subordinate officer of the Hereditary Sheriff, was not otherwise Provided for, either by fees or salary, and temptation was thus given to make exactions which, under other circumstances, would not have been necessary, and certainly ought not have been made. This may also account for the monster prosecutions, of which we have given several examples, under the Game Laws and numerous old Scotch Acts, for statutory penalties, in which as many as fifty persons, mostly tenant farmers, were accused in one libel, and brought before the Sheriff, and made to criminate themselves by being put on oath, no other evidence being even attempted to be led against them.
   But whatever was the amount of income Sheriff-Depute Sempe of Balgreen thus obtained, he, after thirty years’ service, died poor, and his widow, Mary Edminstone, required the assistance of Robert Semple of Belltrees, her kinsman, to provide the expense of his funeral. For this expense, and for aliment to herself and children and maintenance of servants from 10th March, 1726, when the Sheriff died, till the term of Whitsunday following, his widow raised a summons of constitution against John Semple and William Semple, her children, and their tutors and curators, to have the amount made a charge against the deceased Sheriff’s moveable estate. The summons narrates . . .her second born child Robert died earlier.

3.   Patrick Hogue (Samples). Hereditary Sempill Lords of Craiginfeoch, Craigbetts, and Balgreen.
4.   Patrick Hogue (Samples). The Samples / Semples Family.